Request Body

Once we execute this request we can inspect the response to ensure that the request item has been added successfully to the Categories List.

Also we can validate this new item added by browsing Categories List

Update List Item

http://<Host Name>/_api/Web/Lists/getByTitle('Categories')/Items(9)

For update request you have to include “eTag” value that was returned with the item during the initial query to the Request Body. SharePoint uses this value to determine if there is any updates made to the item since it is last queried.

“If-Match: *” can be used to match any “eTag” value resulting in the operation being performed regardless of the actual value.

In this article we will understand how utilize a famous developer productivity tool called fiddler as REST API Test Client for SharePoint (though the target system could be anything with a valid REST API Endpoint)

Fiddler is primarily used as a Web Proxy that can allow you intercept REST API Request – Response Cycle. The usage of this tool has increase with shift in modern SharePoint development paradigms that favors more if Client Side Development Techniques/Strategies/Platforms rather than traditional Farm Solutions.

In this upcoming section of this article I will guide on how to use Fiddler to test REST API Call against SharePoint Data.

In this article we will explore only GET type of Requests only.

To start with this demo launch Fiddler and go to “Rules” Menu and Select “Automatically Authenticate”, this will let Fiddler to authenticate you against SharePoint based on the User Token stored once.

If this setting is not enabled you might encounter “401 UNAUTHORIZED” as shown below-

Also notice the request headers that are required to execute the SharePoint REST API Endpoint

This demo is about another tool that I worked out during an assignment while working with an integration scenario using web services supporting Basic Authentication.

Problem with basic authentication is that you have to keep username and password stored somewhere in order to generate the authentication token.

Since I was integrating external web services with SharePoint so I felt to delegate the Token Generation Process to an external tool and consume the Authentication Token directly with out keep user name and password to be stored in the code itself.

To run this demo I have created a simple interface that takes username and password as input and generates the Basic Authentication Token and will display it in “Authentication Token” section

Now when we click “Get Authentication Token” button we will see the authentication token in the “Authentication Token” section.

This token can be used for any Web Service supporting basic authentication, and this strategy can be merged with other functionalities too in order to generate this token on the fly.
Hope you find it helpful.

There are quite a number of Must to Have developer tools that every SharePoint Developer must have in its arsenal in order to boost its own Productivity while developing solutions on SharePoint Platform.

Few of the tools which are my personal favorites also are listed below:

CAML Designer 2013

CAML Designer can generate the CAML Query Stubs based on the inputs provided by the developer and can quickly give a handle on even complex query formations.

It is not just about the Formation of Queries but also offers code Transition from actual CAML Query to

SharePoint Manager has got quite a simple and intuitive interface which allows you to quickly and easily navigate down the farm and investigate settings, properties, schema XML and so on. Most of the things in your SharePoint environment can be investigated from this tool.

This tool allows you to quickly navigate the Site Hierarchy and objects, and you can also get a quick handle on Schema of List, Fields and on object properties like Object GUIDs, Object Titles and so on.

ULS Viewer allows you to look into the SharePoint ULS Logs in real time by parsing the Logs. The information (Correlation ID, Date Time Stamp, Event Source Process and so on )exposed by this tool is really useful for productive debugging capabilities.

With the evolution of SharePoint 2013 Developer Dashboard also includes these capabilities of reading & parsing ULS logs. Developer Dashboard contains a separate tab by the name “ULS” where we can see the ULS log entries.

SharePoint Search Tool allows to you create and test SharePoint Search Keyword Query backed up by SharePoint REST API paradigm. It also allows you to analyze the Query Stats and adjust them as per the required output.

This framework can be really helpful to let you verify if your custom solutions are Stable, Complying with Company Policies, Following Coding Best Practices, Well Designed and Maintainable and much more.

This is a Chrome Plugin that allows you configure and investigate REST Queries by configuring and executing REST API Call through the tool UI. It also allows us to look for the Stats of the REST Queries in execution.

This is the similar tool as SharePoint Manager with the only difference that it allows us to connect to SharePoint Sites Remotely using Client APIs. So now no more need to login to SharePoint Server to browser SharePoint Site Objects using this tool.

This is an awesome tool for testing SharePoint Send Mail Functionalities no matter if it is Custom or OOB functionality that we are testing.

It is used to verify if the SharePoint is sending mails to the recipients properly. This tool intercepts the mails that were sending to the recipients by SharePoint and allows you to view them in its own UI.

PowerGUI is one of the best tools available for PowerShell Programming. It provides intellisence support for writing PowerShell Scripts at the same time provides lot of useful windows for Debugging purposes.

The SharePoint Software Factory is a Visual Studio Extension helping SharePoint Beginners, as well as experienced developers to create, manage and deploy SharePoint solutions without having to know schema internals of the SharePoint Artifacts.

Following is the list of few of the features offered by this extension-

SharePoint Solution Deployer helps you to deploy SharePoint solution packages (.wsp) to multiple SharePoint environments. It deploys, retracts and upgrades one or more WSPs and can be extended to perform additional custom tasks in PowerShell before or afterwards.

It provides a simple XML configuration file which allows you to define the deployment environment by using variables i.e. to perform different actions on different URLs depending to which farm you are currently deploying.

Microsoft SharePoint Diagnostic Studio 2010 (SPDiag version 3.0) was created to simplify and standardize troubleshooting of Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products, and to provide a unified view of collected data.

SPServices is a jQuery library which abstracts SharePoint’s Web Services and makes them easier to use. It also includes functions which use the various Web Service operations to provide more useful (and cool) capabilities. It works entirely client side and requires no server install.

FxCop is an application that analyzes managed code assemblies (code that targets the .NET Framework common language runtime) and reports information about the assemblies, such as possible design, localization, performance, and security improvements. Many of the issues concern violations of the programming and design rules set forth in the Design Guidelines, which are the Microsoft guidelines for writing robust and easily maintainable code by using the .NET Framework.

SharePoint Foundation development projects often involve a mixture of imperative coding and XML markup. Frequently, you add your new assembly’s Public Key Token to a project file, such as an XML configuration file.

If your Visual Studio project is based on any of the SharePoint 2010 project templates in Visual Studio, you can simply insert the placeholder $SharePoint.Project.AssemblyPublicKeyToken$ where the Public Key Token should be in most kinds of project files (but not .cs or .vb files or other compilable files).

When you build and deploy the project, Visual Studio will replace the placeholder with the Public Key Token in the copies of the files that are actually deployed.

If you need to insert the Public Key Token in a file that does not support the placeholders, you will need a way to obtain the Public Key Token. This topic explains how to add an item to the Visual Studio Tools menu that can be used to obtain the Public Key Token of an assembly under development.